Taking a moment to update what has been going on the past week, zero-waste style.
MOZARELLA STICKS
I've been making slow progress, but each little change is a small victory. My children LOVE mozzarella sticks, particularly the ones made by kraft. But buying the sticks means that each stick of cheese is wrapped in its own individual wrapping. I found a substitute that actually tastes way better than the kraft version. At the grocery store's deli, I ask for a pound to a pound and a half of mozzarella cheese, and to just have it cut in one big chunk, and put inside my jar. The jar will have the tare weight on it so they can subtract it from the total weight on the scale***...
When I come home I take the hunk of cheese, cut it up into sticks, and stick them in a glass jar.
TADA!! Mozarella cheese sticks!!! The kids love them, and I admit I love them too.
...***I want to make note that a lot of deli people don't know how to subtract from the total, or what tare weight even is. I was at my closest grocery store, Caraluzzi's, and the manager said that the store is not equipped to have me use my jars instead of their plastic bags. I didn't push it, but I will need to plan my shopping better for the further distanced Whole Foods....
YEAST
This week I was on my very last freezer loaf from the store, and since I wouldn't be purchasing any more sandwich bread in the plastic bags, I decided to try my hand at making my own bread. I brought out my trusty but dusty bread maker, threw in some ingredients for a breadmaker recipe, and...OH NO!!! I RAN OUT OF YEAST! Thankfully my bread turned out alright with only half of the yeast of what the recipe called for. However for the next day or two I was thinking to myself how in the world can I purchase yeast in bulk, without any plastic wrapping or container? I know that they come in a glass container, but then I would have to recycle the container, and I really would prefer to recycle less...Which brought me to my next question: How does one make yeast, anyway? It seems like this magical substance that I knew nothing about...Actually as I'm typing this I will gladly admit I still know nothing about it. Healthy bacteria?? Something like that I suppose. Bread has always been a mystical magic to me anyway...
and then I remembered something called a "starter." It basically is a wet version of my dry yeast, and I can make it at home! WHAT? I could make YEAST?? I found this recipe for an all purpose yeast starter, and I have been making some myself...
I have been using this recipe on youtube to get started:
I am excited to see what happens, I still have to find a recipe, but I think I will start with this one:
If I fail, I can always bring home a couple loaves of sourdough bread from the store and freeze them. But bread is my weakness, and making them sounds so much yummier!
COMPOST SUCCESS UPDATE!
So as you may have read from the previous posts, I was given a bucket from Sleepy Pig Farm in Redding, which is a rescue pig farm! I fill the bucket with our family's scraps, and twice a week they pick up the bucket to feed the piggies! That has worked well for me in allowing me to reuse the food we don't eat to a good cause.
HOWEVER, there are indeed some things that pigs do not eat, and are actually toxic for pigs. So what do I do with the rest of my scraps? (I have a lawn service where the lawn clippings goes back into the ground, and they blow the leaves into a pile and take them away, so I don't have any real material to compost...And I suppose I am too much of a city girl to create a pile of compost in my yard to tend to, but maybe you are stronger than me!)
Bring in the lovely Lauren Singer, who told me the simplest way to compost from her Brooklyn apartment!!
I am sure the farmer's market will be ok with me giving them compost...I think...Well I am making a frozen batch right now, so I'll have to find out!
WET WIPES
Ok, so I am down to my last batch of wet wipes...I want to take the leap of faith needed to go reusable with wipes and diapers, but frankly I am scared. Yes, maam, I get totally grossed out at the idea of having to work with poop. Do I have to scrape it into the toilet and wash soiled wipes?? I think I am going to have to, because I am running out quick. My question I've been researching is what do I do with them once they are used? I suppose I should put them into a sealed container or wet bag of some sort, and then put them into the washing machine. I am definitely not ready for reusable diapers yet, but I still need to research and find out a clean method I feel good about. Mostly I am questioning what to do with the diaper and wet wipes once I have washed them off, before I put them into the washing machine. Anyone out there know what they have done that has worked?
BLUEBERRIES/ RASPBERRIES
My family loves these two types of berries. We eat them year round, but if I went completely zero waste, that means I would only be able to eat them in season when they are picked by the farmers market, or I would pick them myself...My new idea to get around this is I will save all of my plastic containers for the farmer's markets and I can hand it to them to use during berry picking seasons. So in a way I am reusing, even though it is plastic, and that packaging is not so great for the environment...I think I need to draw that line to allow these super-food berries into our diets. Does anyone else have a better idea with this?
SUGAR MELTDOWN
I had personally decided to try using more honey than granulated sugar, mostly so we could go a little more natural. Yesterday my children saw we were out of granulated sugar, and began to have a meltdown..."HOW WILL WE MAKE COOKIES AND LEMONADE? WE NEED SUGAR, MOM! HONEY DOESN'T TASTE THE SAME!"
I started to mention to them the idea of what an addiction means, if they consider themselves to be addicted to sugar, and is this any different than any other addictive drug...But I think this talk went right over my eight and five year old children's heads...At least the sugar bag is paper and can be burned, right? Maybe I should make a burn pile in my garage...Hmmmm...
Keep fighting the zero waste fight!!
Laura
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